10/05/2023
Bauchi English Class.
WILL and WOULD
WILL is particularly resourceful,having several different functions and meanings. It is used to form future tenses, to complete conditional sentences, to express willingness or ability, to make request or offers, to issue command or to express likelihood in the immediate present.
One of will's most common uses as a modal verb is to talk about things that are certain very likely, or planned to happened in the future. Example:
➡ I will turn 30 tomorrow. (future simple tense)
➡ She will be dancing at the dinner party as well. (future continuous tense)
Will can also be used to make future perfect tense and future perfect continuous tense:
➡ it's hard to believe that by next month we will have been married for 2 years. (future perfect tense)
➡ by the I get there, he will have been waiting for over an hour. (future perfect continuous tense).
If we want to make any of the future tenses negative. We often contract will and not into won't :
➡ I won't be seeing the movie with you tonight.
➡ At this pace, she won't finish in first place.
If we want to make a question, we invert will with the subject, as in:
➡ What will they do with the money.
2. Ability and willingness
We use will to express/inquire about a person or thing's ability to do something. It is very similar to the future, but is used for more immediate actions:
➡ You wash the dishes, I'll take out the trash.
3. Request and offers
We often create interrogative sentences using will to make request or polite offers. They are usually addressed to someone in the second person:
➡ will you walk the goat, Ali?
However, we can use subjects in the first and third person as well:
➡ will your friend join us for some lunch?
4. Conditional sentence
In present tense conditional sentences formed using if, we often use will to express an expected hypothetical outcome (first conditional):
➡ If I see him, I will tell him the news.
5. Likelihood and certainty
We can also use will to express the likelihood or certainty that something is the case in the immediate present. For instance: in response to the phone ringing
➡ That will be Sani, I'm expecting his call.
6. Command
We can also use will to issue commands, orders, or maxims and it express a certainty that the command will be objected:
➡ This house will not be used as a hotel for your friends, do you understand?
WOULD
The modal auxiliary verb would has a variety of functions and uses. It is used in place of will for thing that happened or begin in the past and it is sometimes used in place of will to create more formal or polite sentences. It is also used to describe hypothetical situation, to politely offer or ask for advice or an opinion and to express request and preference.
1. Creating the future tense in the past.
When a sentence expresses a future, possibility, expectation, intention or inevitability that began in the past, we use would instead of will. Example:
➡ I thought he would be here by now.
2. Past ability and willingness
We also use would for certain expression of a person or thing's ability or willingness in the past though they are usually negative:
➡ Aisha wouldn't come out of her room all weekend.
3. Likelihood and certainty
Like we saw with will, we can also use would to express the like and certainty that something was the case in immediate past. For instance:
➡ Speaker A: There was a man here just now asking about renting the spare room.
Speaker B: that would be Anas, he just moved here from Kano.
4. Polite request
Here we can use would in the way as will except that would adds a level of politeness to the question:
➡ Would you please take out the garbage for me?
5. Expressing desires
We used would with the main verb LIKE to express or inquire about a person's desire to do something. (we can also use the main verb CARE)
➡ I would like to go to the movies later.
➡ would you care to have dinner with me today?
6. Would that
Would can also be used to introduce a that clause to indicate some hypothetical or hopeful situation that one wishes were true:
➡ Would that we lived near the market.
7. Preference
We used would with the adverb RATHER and SOONER to express or inquire about a person's preference for something:
➡ Would you rather go biking or go for a hike?
➡ They would sooner go bankrupt than sell the family home.
8. Hypothetical situations
We can also used to discuss hypothetical or possible situation that we can imagine happening, but that aren't dependent on a conditional if clause :
➡ They would be an amazing band to see in concert.
9. Polite opinions
We can use would with opinion verb to dampen the forcefulness of an assertion, making it sound more polite:
➡ What would you suggest we do instead?
10. Asking the reason why
When we use the question why, we often follow it with would to ask the reason something happened:
➡ Why would my brother lie to me?
Note that if we use I or we as the subject in this case, it is often used rhetorically to suggest that a question or accusation is groundless or false as in:
➡ Why would I try to hide anything from you?
11. Polite advice
We can use would in the first person politely offer advice about something ( it is common to add the phrase if I were you at the end as in:
➡ I would apologize to the boss if I were you.
We can also use would in the second and third person to offer advice, usually in the construction "you would be wise/smart to do something" as in:
➡ I think you would be wise to be more careful with your money.
➡ Recent graduates would be smart to set up a savings account as early as possible.
